The directorial career of James Wan can be roughly split into two genres. On the one hand, you’ve got the horror movies that the helmsman made his name on, from Saw to Insidious to The Conjuring. At the same time, Wan has also made two major blockbusters – Fast & Furious 7 and Aquaman – with the potential for further DC flicks in his future.
With this in mind, the Blade franchise sounds like a pretty perfect combination of ingredients for the action/horror director, and if a discussion between the filmmaker and Marvel from a couple of years ago had gone a little differently, perhaps Wan would’ve been the one to bring the vampire-slaying property back to our screens.
In a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Wan recalled one of his earliest attempts at breaking into superhero cinema:
“Years back, a couple of years back, I think it was right after Conjuring 1 that I went into a particular studio and told them ‘Hey, I’m a big fan of Blade. Would you guys be interested in rebooting Blade?’ So that was one. Obviously, nothing came out of that! But that was my first intro into looking at potential comic book properties.”
Jump to the present day and Wan’s Blade ship has probably sailed, but for any MCU fans intrigued to know what could’ve been, the director suggests that he didn’t have an especially fleshed out vision for the return of Eric Brooks:
“It was just to kind of talk about it. I didn’t have a full presentation. I did have an idea, I can’t quite remember what it was. That’s how far back it was and I’ve done a lot since then so I can’t quite remember what I had thought of. But I did like it at the time.”
Of course, Wan would get his superhero movie eventually, and if the box office projections of Aquaman are anything to go by, then the filmmaker could probably stick with the Arthur Curry saga for another few years if he so chooses.
As for Blade, actor Wesley Snipes said as recently as last week that his teeth are still sharp for further projects, but it all rests with Marvel. Sadly, despite reports of discussions at the studio, Marvel has yet to show any sign that it’s taking Snipes up on his offer, but at least we know that producer Kevin Feige is open to the idea. There’s not much to go on while we wait for further updates, but in the meantime, Wan’s Aquaman hits theaters on December 21st.
